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Vancouver (WA) Cache Machine

travisl

By travisl
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travisl

+travisl

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Draft 1 is posted (2.3 MB .pdf). If you're familiar with the area or any of the caches on the route, I'd welcome any suggestions you may have.

 

As far as hotels, I've only stayed at one in the area: the Phoenix Inn. Nice, $79 a night, and all-you-can-eat bacon at the free breakfast buffet. And I think they start it early enough that we might actually get to eat it before the event.

 

But if Red Lion at the Quay is cheaper, I'm all for that. There's also several hotels right at the start point. Share away!

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klossner

+klossner

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Posted (edited)
If you're familiar with the area or any of the caches on the route, I'd welcome any suggestions you may have.
Cache #21 cannot be reached on that approach. Park at the west end of NE 58th St and follow the pedestrian trail. The Google satellite photo makes it pretty clear. Some steep stairs are involved, so give this one ten minutes.

 

For caches #26 and #27: the road NE 41st Circle is blocked to car traffic just east of NE 18th Court. It's a ten-minute walk each way to those caches.

 

Cache #28 GC11GB5 is a puzzle cache: the nominal coordinates are wrong and it's actually on the north side of Highway 500, so the driving directions that carefully take you around to the south side won't help. It would be more accurate to say something like "having found GC11GAF and GC11GAK, do the math and go ... wherever."

Edited by klossner
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hydnsek

+hydnsek

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Posted

For Choice Hotels members: I'm staying at

 

Quality Inn & Suites (WA708)

7001 N.E. Highway 99 , Vancouver, WA, US, 98665

Phone: (360) 696-0516

 

Gottta rack up those points!

 

$67.49 / night for 1 person, queen bed, AAA rate. Has kitchen, high-speed internet, big contintental breakfast, free local calls, newspaper, and more.

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travisl

+travisl

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If you're familiar with the area or any of the caches on the route, I'd welcome any suggestions you may have.
Cache #21 cannot be reached on that approach. ... For caches #26 and #27: the road NE 41st Circle is blocked to car traffic ... Cache #28 GC11GB5 is a puzzle cache: ... it's actually on the north side of Highway 500....

Good stuff; I'll incorporate it into draft 2. Keep it coming.

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travisl

+travisl

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Generally, I post a couple of drafts, and on the Monday before the event (New Year's Eve this time!), I post the final. Ever since the concept of bookmark lists was established, someone has been kind enough every time to create a bookmark list within 24 hours. I don't expect that this time would be any different.

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klossner

+klossner

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It turns out that I've found precisely half of these caches. (And DNF'ed more than I care to admit.)

 

Cache #20 (GCH06P "Electric Avenue") cannot be approached from the south. After you find #19, you must walk a quarter mile along the trail to this cache, then walk back.

 

Cache #22 (GCMQNY, "Bison Capsule Madness #8 - Trailgate"): make absolutely sure that you drive a bit farther east and park in the parking lot on the south side of the road. I made the mistake of parking on the north side of the road, which put me just outside the fence of a federal installation. When I returned to my car, the good people of Homeland Security wanted to talk to me.

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Ambrosia

+Ambrosia

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In a note on one of her cache pages, mimi0674 says, "Its not fun anymore leaving caches. Especially ones where I know its o.k. but I get denied anyways. Im thinking of making my own website."

 

It seems that mimi is having issues with working with Groundspeak, and this may be part of that. I doubt that she disabled everything because of the CM.

 

I hope that if she's serious, she'll archive these caches instead of just disabling them, making extra work for others (and that she picks up the containers).

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travisl

+travisl

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The disabled caches are numbers 1, 3, 46, 47, 50, 53a, 54, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, and 77.

 

I don't see any sign that the cache owner disabled these in response to the cache machine.

 

They were, and they weren't. Her cache page, as of Thursday evening, said "IT'S NO FUN LEAVING CACHES ANYMORE", "I THINK IM GOING TO CANCELL MY SUBSCIPTION", and "BUMMER IT HAD TO GO LIKE THIS". I asked her if she was going to be picking up her caches, or if I should count on them being there in January. She didn't answer me directly, but this indirect answer is good enough for me.

 

The removal of these caches shouldn't impact the day very much. I'll come up with a new starting point, and several more caches to the north and/or east. My first attempt at a route came up with more than 150 caches, so I have no concerns about not having enough to hunt.

 

Edit: I've submitted her disabled caches as "needs to be archived." She still has one active, "New Hope", which I've asked her about.

Edited by travisl
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klossner

+klossner

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I can't make it to the event next month, so I spent today previewing the caches that I haven't already found (and that aren't disabled.) For verisimilitude, I did it in the pouring rain. Some new observations:

 

#5 GC12ZYP, #8 GC125VX, #9 GC125W2: you cannot approach these caches from the south; you would drop off a cliff. These caches and #7 GC13KAJ are situated along the Discovery Trail. There is parking northwest of #9, northwest of #8, and across the street and west of #7, but it might be faster just to park near #8 and walk to all points. It took us 75 minutes to visit these four caches.

 

#12 GCTMV4: there is no parking, or even stopping, anywhere near the south side of the park. There's good parking on the north side.

 

#45 GC14NCN: there is no legal parking or stopping *anywhere* near here. I dropped off my friend and orbited while he made the find.

 

#59 GC15X65: as the name suggests, this cache is located outside a coffee shop. You might want to add a few minutes to the schedule for the caffeine addicts.

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Blue Power Ranger

+Blue Power Ranger

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Posted

I was looking at Hotels near by and I saw that the Rodeway Inn near the Westfield Mall has rooms for 59 a night and I think that may have included continental breakfast. Only a mile from the starting point.

That one gets a good review from Trip Advisor.

 

It is on Choice Hotels for $53.10. You just have to change the rate to internet users rate. And I was able to get that rate for 2 Queen beds, 4 people. Can't beat that since it includes breakfast. :lol: We have it booked Friday and Saturday night.

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The Jester

+The Jester

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Posted

Owners of Garmin GPSrs with map capability might be interested in Sky Schemer's free Portland-area topo map. It has excellent topo information for the area where the Vancouver Cache Machine will operate -- great for seeing if a route goes over a cliff. It includes streets, parks, and trails, but does not have street routing information.

I downloaded it, but can't for the life of me figure out how to use/install it/view it or anything else with MapSource.

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The Jester

+The Jester

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I downloaded it, but can't for the life of me figure out how to use/install it/view it or anything else with MapSource.

 

I told it to install into my Garmin directory.

 

Open Mapsource

 

Upper left hand corner on the pull down menu select Oregon Topo - Pacific Northwest Topo

I finally got there (I had to close and open Mapsource before it showed up) but now get an error message when trying to upload to the 60csx: There is a problem with your Oregon ... installation. Please re-install and try again. But re-installing doesn't help anything. Oh, well, maybe Santa will bring me the map DVD I want...

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FunnyNose

+FunnyNose

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I finally got there (I had to close and open Mapsource before it showed up) but now get an error message when trying to upload to the 60csx: There is a problem with your Oregon ... installation. Please re-install and try again. But re-installing doesn't help anything. Oh, well, maybe Santa will bring me the map DVD I want...

 

Just uploading it to my GPSr now.. No errors 18 minutes to go.. Crossing fingers..

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Riddlers

+Riddlers

Posted
Posted
The disabled caches are numbers 1, 3, 46, 47, 50, 53a, 54, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 76, and 77.

 

I don't see any sign that the cache owner disabled these in response to the cache machine.

 

They were, and they weren't. Her cache page, as of Thursday evening, said "IT'S NO FUN LEAVING CACHES ANYMORE", "I THINK IM GOING TO CANCELL MY SUBSCIPTION", and "BUMMER IT HAD TO GO LIKE THIS". I asked her if she was going to be picking up her caches, or if I should count on them being there in January. She didn't answer me directly, but this indirect answer is good enough for me.

 

The removal of these caches shouldn't impact the day very much. I'll come up with a new starting point, and several more caches to the north and/or east. My first attempt at a route came up with more than 150 caches, so I have no concerns about not having enough to hunt.

 

Edit: I've submitted her disabled caches as "needs to be archived." She still has one active, "New Hope", which I've asked her about.

 

Well, as of now all of her caches are archived. Every one of them.

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travisl

+travisl

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I'd meant to post draft 2 this week, but I keep forgetting to get it moved over. It's late enough now that I'll post draft 2 next Monday instead.

 

Also, FWIW, Priceline.com rejected requests for $36/night 2½-star hotels, and for $32/night 2-star hotels. I know I'll end up in Red Lion at the Quay, but I'm making it a challenge to get it as cheaply as possible.

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snookie74

+snookie74

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I don't do much hotel searching, so I am pretty new to this. It seems that the Roadway Inn is going to be the cheapest so far. I checked out the Red Lion at the Quay and it seemed quite a bit pricier. I don't know where the $48 came from. The cheapest I am finding is around $62 a night. -Hawk- and I have to come far enough that we are staying on Friday and Saturday. We need to find the cheapest we can without being trashy. Any suggestions on finding cheaper rates would be great.

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eagsc7

+eagsc7

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Posted

I downloaded it, but can't for the life of me figure out how to use/install it/view it or anything else with MapSource.

 

I told it to install into my Garmin directory.

 

Open Mapsource

 

Upper left hand corner on the pull down menu select Oregon Topo - Pacific Northwest Topo

I finally got there (I had to close and open Mapsource before it showed up) but now get an error message when trying to upload to the 60csx: There is a problem with your Oregon ... installation. Please re-install and try again. But re-installing doesn't help anything. Oh, well, maybe Santa will bring me the map DVD I want...

 

Hey Everyone... I found this site for all your Garmin Mapping Needs... It has practically everything... http://67.185.105.184/ Ok.. its actually my server, but still.. It has it all and directions.

 

The Steaks

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eagsc7

+eagsc7

Posted
Posted

 

Hey Everyone... I found this site for all your Garmin Mapping Needs... It has practically everything... http://67.185.105.184/ Ok.. its actually my server, but still.. It has it all and directions.

 

The Steaks

I assumed it should be in the "Geocacing" (sic) section, but didn't see anything relevant.

Well.. if you read the directions, you'll be able to get all the software for Mapsource with Metroguide/City Select and even TOPO 2008. Of course, if you already have it all, disreguard.

 

The Steaks

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klossner

+klossner

Posted
Posted
ake a look and let me know if I'm still sending you the wrong way down a cliff to an archived cache
On the way to cache #3: you cannot turn left onto or off of Mill Plain Blvd except at major intersections. There's a raised barrier separating the lanes. I recommend that you turn left earlier, onto Lieser, then right on MacArthur and right on Morrison.

 

Cache #6 is brand new and I haven't been there. I'm pretty sure you cannot approach it from the north; you would be crossing private property. Look at the Google satellite view -- you want to take the east-west path. I'll try to get out there sometime before the cache machine to check it out.

 

For cache #7, you can only go a little ways south on that road. The satellite view is old -- there's a parking area and a barrier, and the road turns into a brand-new trail. You'll need 15 minutes here.

 

On the way to cache #10: you cannot turn left from Mill Plain Blvd here. There isn't a good left turn anywhere near here. I recommend that you do cache #11 first (good luck finding it), then go west and cross Mill Plain on Brandt Road.

 

Cache #14 is in a baseball field. The road just to the south of it puts you on the wrong side of a long chain-link fence. I recommend that you use the parking coordinate waypoint for this cache.

 

Cache #16: there's no stopping on Fort Vancouver Way. Park in the round parking lot northeast of the cache. You can see it on the Google satellite view.

 

Cache #22: I haven't done this one yet, but I'm pretty sure you can't stop on the road there.

 

Cache #25: the final is not at the initial coordinates. This will screw up your driving plan.

 

Cache #35: don't park there, you'll have to descend a very steep hill. Instead, park at the west end of NE 41st Circle and approach the cache along the trail from the east.

 

Cache #36: Something went wrong with your map here. You show the parking spot but not the cache, which is east into Arnold Park.

 

Cache #39: This cache cannot be reached from the south without jumping off a cliff. Park on Alki Road to the southeast and walk in on the trail. Parking is tight.

 

After cache #40: your map is wrong; NW 49th Street does not extend this far east. See the Google satellite map. To get to the next cache, take 48th street east to Franklin, then north to 53rd.

 

Cache #42: you cannot reach this cache from the street to the south. Use the east-west alley just north of this pocket park. It doesn't show on a street map but you can see it in the Google satellite view. There is some parking there.

 

Cache #49: you cannot reach this cache from the north. Take Columbia Street south, and immediately after it crosses under the railroad overpass, turn west and follow the road to the parking lot. The Google satellite view makes this clear.

 

Cache #52: I don't know anything about the "SE 6th Ave" and "SE 12th St" mentioned in the instructions. They don't show on my map and I don't remember seeing them. There are two ways to this cache: take Beach Drive from the west to the park's parking area (there was a parking fee when I visited but maybe that's only in summer), or use the back entrance at the northeast corner of the park and north of the private tennis court. For the latter, there is no parking south of the railroad tracks; it's all private enclave with gates.

 

Cache #56 is inside a large apartment complex. The only safe parking is the little stub of public road (Nancy Road?) to the east.

 

For cache #58, you really do need to use the recommended parking to stay out of tow-away zones. From NE Gher, turn west onto NE Coxley and find a public parking spot. Better yet, do cache #59 first and then walk to cache #58 from there.

 

For cache #62, you cannot approach from the south. Parking is at the east end of NE 43rd Street.

 

Cache #64 is actually in the park and cannot be approached from the west. I used the park access from the south between two houses. The Google satellite view shows it. Alternatively, it looks like you should be able to enter the park from the north at 145th Street, but I haven't tried it.

 

For cache #66: you cannot turn left on NE 162nd Avenue at that point. The Google satellite map shows a grass separator. It looks like you'll need to park on NE 37th Street just south of the cache, so rework your driving directions to come east on that road.

 

Cache #67: I don't know whether you can access the park from NE 20th Circle. We walked in on trails from the east end of the park, starting at NE 149th Court.

 

Cache #70 is inaccessible. What used to be open space is now a fenced-off construction project. This cache should have been archived months ago.

 

Cache #71: stop me if you've heard this one: you cannot turn left from Mill Plain Blvd. After cache #70, go west to 162nd and south to Mill Plain so you'll be turning right into the shopping center.

 

Cache #74: don't turn onto SE 171st Court, there's no park access. Just continue on 172nd Avenue to the park.

 

Cache #75: there's no parking in the roundabout. I parked a block east on 175th Avenue.

 

Cache #79: you cannot turn left on SW Talton and there's no parking on the northbound side of the road. You want to come south on this road to the park.

 

Cache #80: you must park on the west end of the park on SE Bella Vista Road. You should probably reorder the caches to do this one immediately after #78.

 

Cache #81: approach from the north so you can park on the west side of the road.

 

Cache #82: no access from the south. Use the parking lot on 136th Ave, northeast of the cache.

 

Cache #85: no access from the road to the west -- there's a huge wall. You must approach from the east.

 

Cache #89: you cannot turn left on Mill Plain Blvd here. I recommend that you reorder the last few caches as follows: 84, then 89, then 88, then 87, then 86, then 85 (you *can* turn left from Mill Plain eastbound onto 126th northbound), then 90 (the restaurant.)

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gonegeofishing

gonegeofishing

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Posted

Question. Planning on going to this event with 1fairygirl. We have never done a cache machine. Should we pick up any bugs along the drive there to keep them moving? Maybe some coins of ours for discovery or is this event to frenzied to even consider this? Klossner you have done a great job clarifying tricky access to some of these caches. Thanks. You either work some swing shift or get 0 sleep. ;)

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travisl

+travisl

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Should we pick up any bugs along the drive there to keep them moving ... or is this event to frenzied to even consider this?
Usually you'll be able to find a few minutes to stick a bug in a cache. Even if you can't -- and there seems to be a lot of micros this time -- there's always the option to hand it off to someone else at dinner.

 

A few follow-up questions for klossner (or anyone else):

For cache #7... The satellite view is old -- there's a parking area and a barrier, and the road turns into a brand-new trail. You'll need 15 minutes here.
For the three caches in that area, (GC17WNC Foster’s Rendezvous (Micro 2/1), GC13KAJ Foster's Cache (Small 2.5/1), and GC125VX William the Conqueror's - Knights Fortress (Small 2/1)), it looks like it would be best to just park in the parking area, close to Andresen Rd., and hoof it to them.

 

Cache #36: Something went wrong with your map here. You show the parking spot but not the cache, which is east into Arnold Park.
I'll get you to the parking area. You're on your own to find the cache from there .;) With all the new parking directions you gave, there's going to be a lot more like this now (which will be listed on the route as "Arrive parking for ...").

 

On the way to cache #10 [GCQ41P Watch your step (Micro 1.5/1), now #12 in the screen shot below] you cannot turn left from Mill Plain Blvd here. There isn't a good left turn anywhere near here. I recommend that you do cache #11 first (good luck finding it), then go west and cross Mill Plain on Brandt Road.
Has the median at Manzanita been extended? Google satellite photos show a left turn lane and a way to drive straight across Mill Plain here.

 

Cache #56 [GCQQ0Z You are surrounded! (Micro 1/1)] is inside a large apartment complex. The only safe parking is the little stub of [Nancy Road] to the east.
Google satellite shows a perfect looking cul de sac outside the security gate at the east end of SE 17th Circle. Is that no longer there?

 

The rest of the changes, I've already incorporated into my next draft of the route (unposted until next week). Good stuff. But it can't be nearly as good as the food at the restaurant I found in the middle of the morning section of the route:

59e8e66b-abac-40fa-a506-4e30f583ba17.jpg

 

It's where the creepy kids at the nearby elementary school love to eat!

 

(silly Microsoft typos...)

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klossner

+klossner

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Posted
For cache #7... The satellite view is old -- there's a parking area and a barrier, and the road turns into a brand-new trail. You'll need 15 minutes here.
For the three caches in that area, (GC17WNC Foster’s Rendezvous (Micro 2/1), GC13KAJ Foster's Cache (Small 2.5/1), and GC125VX William the Conqueror's - Knights Fortress (Small 2/1)), it looks like it would be best to just park in the parking area, close to Andresen Rd., and hoof it to them.
I agree.

 

On the way to cache #10 [GCQ41P Watch your step (Micro 1.5/1), now #12 in the screen shot below] you cannot turn left from Mill Plain Blvd here. There isn't a good left turn anywhere near here. I recommend that you do cache #11 first (good luck finding it), then go west and cross Mill Plain on Brandt Road.
Has the median at Manzanita been extended? Google satellite photos show a left turn lane and a way to drive straight across Mill Plain here.
You're right, that will work. I read the directions too quickly and thought you were turning left onto Umatilla.

 

Cache #56 [GCQQ0Z You are surrounded! (Micro 1/1)] is inside a large apartment complex. The only safe parking is the little stub of [Nancy Road] to the east.
Google satellite shows a perfect looking cul de sac outside the security gate at the east end of SE 17th Circle. Is that no longer there?
It's there as pictured, but the apartment complex thinks they own all of that pavement east of Ellsworth. With all the "tow away" signs, I wouldn't risk it. (This one's going to be a fun stop. The cache site is truly surrounded by two-story apartment buildings full of windows.)
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